The temperature in the Western Hills increased gradually with the change of season. The spring sun washed the green mountains in a golden haze, accompanied by the sounds of chirping birds.
The muddy ground had began to dry, the footing was sufficient for the people to move around as normal again.
Children happy to see the end of the cold months ran around the manor laughing and playing, wearing clean robes of good quality.
The standard of clothing and housing for these commoners was something they hadn't even dreamt of before, with the money they earned from their duties around the manor they could now buy clothes, meat, furniture and even luxury items they had never been in a position to purchase prior.
Zhi Ruo was a natural entrepreneur, and since she had taken over running the manor, she stocked the manor with a variety of goods, opening small shops selling different items for reasonable prices, sometimes just barely above cost price.
This created and artificial economy within the manor, the money circulated in and out of the commoners' pockets and into the coffers of the house, keeping House Hartley in a good position financially, while raising the overall infrastructure and standards of living for all.
There were newly built, neatly aligned rows of stone buildings being erected to the east of the original miner's residential area.
Cobblestone roads were being built to connect each section of the manor. With the rise in man-power at their disposal, the work went twice as fast, they could incur these costs and still not lose as much gold as they did in the first batch of buildings.
With the newly added workers, the coal mines had been yielding double the average production per day, doubling the daily revenues for House Hartley.
Things were looking up now, Hartley had made a request to commander Genk, he needed to get someone skilled in training soldiers to come and whip his forces into shape.
The commander did not disappoint, he sent one of his captains to the manor almost immediately.
The man arrived in the Western Hills a week ago, the muscled man was a whopping 2 meters tall, he had black hair showering down to his shoulders. His name was captain Houlang, he was a 2nd layer xiantian and a man of few words.
He had greeted Hartley and the rest respectfully, then had a few reluctant conversations outlining his plans, he was given the position of temporary guard captain of the Western Hills, with Fu Qian as his assistant.
Hopefully he would groom Fu Qian enough so that he could be competent at the position and take over when the muscled man had to leave.
There was no lingering, the muscle man got down to his duties immediately, delivering instructions to the amateur force on the details of what makes a good soldier. From nutrition and fitness to weapon maintenance and safety.
He quickly implemented discipline in these former bandits and farmers, starting a new and more professional training regime, this saw massive improvements in the force over the short time he had been present.
Most soldiers won't make it into the xiantian realm because it took enlightenment to step across that boundary.
But to get ordinary soldiers to the peak of the Houtian realm was easier, all it took was physical practice, dedication and a tweak in nutrition. The captain of the guards took all the soldiers and aspiring soldiers on daily runs through the mountains, warming up their appetite for what was to come.
Sitting in the lounge on the second floor, Hartley smiled as he saw the organized blocks of soldiers in neat formations, they ran laps around the manor, then headed in the direction of the back-mountains.
The skinny youth from the Rykers guild was sat across from him recounting his experiences in the last Year. After Hartley had freed them from the tyranny of the fat guild-master, they had all ventured off into the world, either as a part of Qin Li's impromptu spy network, or just to live the life of a normal mortal.
The youth spoke of the current condition of the guild, assuring that everything was running smoothly when he had left. Whenever he mentioned Zhi Ruo, he spoke as if she was a Goddess, he had left the Wawrika province soon after Hartley had left and he was determined to serve Hartley and Zhi Ruo at any cost.
Hartley now knew where he was going to recruit his potential xiantians from, these orphans were very loyal to Zhi Ruo and had good potential.
Finding loyalty in the capital was not a guarantee. For this youth to reach the peak of the houtain realm with the scant resources available to him showed that he had good potential. Hartley had to make a trip back to the Wawrika province in the future he thought to himself.
There was four orphans who headed to the capital altogether, two had died on the brutal journey, the youth left the manor to fetch the other surviving orphan.
****
A perfect spring day in the western hills was going quite well, busy people were milling around, until disturbed by the loud drumming of feet and a rolling carriage approaching from the distance.
The sound became more thunderous as it came closer and closer, the wide-eyed commoners scattered around the vicinity, all confused and on edge.
Soon a platoon of shield-bearing infantry men armed with long spears rising to the sky like a forest, barged into the Western Hills aggressively, stopping and forming a defensive line at the entrance to the manor, sending the local commoners scurrying away to safety in panic.
A white luxurious carriage slowly made its way up the winding road and stopped behind the shield bearing infantry, the group thumped their shields to the ground with a grunt, forming a neat wall of iron with their interlocked shields.
A skeleton crew was guarding the manor because most of the men were out training in the mountains. The overwhelmed crew quickly rushed to the manor and reported that there was a couple of nobles at the entrance, backed by a high number of infantry men demanding to see the young lord.
Hartley was not pleased with the intrusion of the foreign force into the western hills. Who would dare try and barge into his territory with so much troops uninvited. This was showing him no face and was a disrespectful gesture towards the sanctity of another noble's property. He gritted his teeth and strolled out without a word, Qin Li and Zhi Ruo looked at each other then rushed out to back him up.
When they reached the entrance, spooked commoners were peeking out from behind cover, none daring to confront the intimidating troops.
Hartley saw the line of about four hundred soldiers, all dressed in bright silver armor, standing behind robust square silver shields that were about a meter long and half a meter wide.
The carriage door swung open, a smiling handsome man dressed in white and about thirty years old alighted, from the other side an elder man came out dressed in black. This elder man was apparently the spokesman of the group because he started to talk as soon as Hartley arrived.
" I am Elder Juntao from a neighboring fief," the man said as he stood behind the his soldiers then pointed at the younger man at the other side of the carriage.
"That is San Wan from house Wan," he said this confidently with his nose pointed towards the sky as if he expected Hartley to be intimidated by the mere mention of House Wan, when the handsome youth across from him didn't show any change in expression he continued after clearing his throat.
"We are here representing Hong Zang, we demand that the commoners you are harboring in the Western Hills be released back to the flat lands this minute." The stern face elder man began to make demands without even greeting the lord of the land on which he currently stood.
"No one is being held captive in the Western Hills, they are all free to return if they so wish. There is no laws against people living where they want is there?" Zhi Ruo shouted back at the rude elder unable to hold back her ire.
The man growled with irritation.
"There is an etiquette that guides the behavior between us nobles and it alleviates the ill will towards each other. These commoners should know their place and serve their noble-house with pride, whether they like it or not. It's not their place to choose, no noble should interfere in another's affairs, its as simple as that." The stern face elder fired back in response with his eyes bulging and spittle flying.
"These people have no slave-stamps, they belong to no-one, if you bring us a law book with this law written. Then I may consider your impolite request, other than that leave the Western Hills right now and don't ever show up uninvited again."
Hartley had already had enough of these people, his patience was running thin, just the sight of these people were starting to irritate him as he finally spoke.
"If They are not returned in ten minutes we will have to invade the western hills, round them up and return them by force. Do not force our hand young man, or you will surely regret it." The elder man snorted after saying all this with the attitude of a teacher threatening to punish a naughty student, while the younger man beside him just smiled brightly at Hartley.
The commoners had shocked and scared faces, if they were to really be returned to the flat lands what awaited them there was terror beyond imagination, surely Hong Zang would torture them to death in revenge.
They started feeling nervous, would a noble stand up to another for their sake? Some began to slowly inch away just in case a deal was made between the nobles, they were planning on immediately heading for the east forest with every breath in their bodies.
How could these frumpy nobles know about Hartley's temper and strength? They had heard stories of his exploits in Tivoli, but to them those were the exaggerated stories told by euphoric soldiers lost in the moment of victory.
Any noble worth his salt would over-exaggerate stories of his own exploits in order to gain more status. They themselves had done such things.
This was their line of thinking and since they had more forces and the backing of House Wan, bullying the youth should be an easy task.
Little did these people know that they had casually waltzed into the cage of a hungry tiger and was poking it with a sharpened stick.
Not even Baron Hongtian who had coerced them with promises of benefits to go against the lord of the western hills would set foot in the western hills lightly. The Baron had sent these proud nobles as guinea pigs to the test the temperament of Hartley.
Bang! There was a sudden crackle in the air.
Hartley punched out without saying another word.
Flashes of blue from his compressed circulation technique blinded everybone momentarily.
Every soldier standing in the defensive line were blown away like dry leaves in the wind, an ear-splitting boom caused the commoners behind Hartley to recoil in fright.
Shields flew away and whirled in the sky like a group of metallic kites, glinting and twinkling the dull reflection of the spring sunshine as they went out of sight.
The wheels and the axles parted company from the white carriage with an almighty crash, the vehicle tumbled and bounced into some trees, sending the two screaming nobles flying higher than the foot soldiers.
If the commoners thought Zhi Ruo was a terror. Now they were seeing a terror a thousand times greater.
When the first soldier landed, he was soaked in blood, squealing out a high pitched scream. Soon the others began to fall from the sky like raindrops drumming against the floor.
Some joined in the chorus of misery, others were already unconscious before even hitting the ground.
Hartley had shown no mercy, his punishment for daring to invade his land was meted out with impartiality.
It was like the sky was vomiting men in shiny armor. The men made teeth-chattering contact with the hard and rocky floor, body parts were ripped away immediately.
Pieces of bloody body-parts still clad in armor were dislodged from the frantic screaming men, scattering around like shrapnel among them.
Bulging horrified eyes witnessed the amazing splendor of destruction brought forth by Hartley's single punch. Witnessing blood spouting and limbs being lopped off like annoying tree branches when the soldiers hit the stony terrain, left the people behind Hartley pale and gasping for breath.
The screeching nobles were the last ones left in the air.Their ears popped and throbbed rapidly with the increasing air pressure, they screamed themselves hoarse trying to wake up from this nightmare, then their momentum started taking them downwards towards the ground.
The first one to hit the ground was San Wan from House Wan, unlucky enough to hit a jutting rock directly.....
His body tumbled away, blood, organs and shattered bones flying in every direction. The gore was impossible to watch for the uninitiated, some of the commoners began throwing up and hiding their children from the sight.
The troops who had managed to survive this horrific ordeal, staggered and turned around fleeing in terror, screaming chaotically, abandoning any thoughts of their wounded colleagues or their original target.
Boom!
Elder Juntao hit the ground like a bomb one second later, kicking up a cloud of dust which completely obscured his body. He was stronger than San Wan and managed to preserve his life with a few serious injuries, he thanked the Holy Matriarch that he didn't land directly on a rock.
Blood was running down his face and into his eyes, obscuring his vision partially, he had a throbbing headache, face wrinkling at the appalling sight before him, his ears were still ringing like a bell as his body juddered in pain, trying to ignore the nightmarish sounds of the men in pieces in front of his eyes.
"The candle that burns twice as bright will end up dying twice as fast. You've got nerves invading my lands and threatening me and my people. Leave Now While You Still Can!" Hartley shouted angrily at the group of battered and injured men who were dallying around dazed trying to find their bearings.
Elder Juntao rolled onto his back, the spray of his blood hissing from his shoulder and up into his face as he slid down a steep slope with an abundance of weeds. He didn't need someone to tell him what to do, he was already staggering out of the western hills, eyes wide as oranges and in shock.
When news of this got back to the people in the Elder prince's camp there was a sea-change in attitudes. The words that Song Zemin had spoken months ago rung stinging in their ears. They had been treating the lord of the western hills as a harmless pup this whole time. Now it was time to seriously reconsider the threat that this new piece on the board posed to them.